Common methods of distributing e-mail messages include e-mailing a message to an individual address or several individual addresses, or e-mailing a message to a group mailing list comprising a list of individual mailing addresses. Often the e-mail message includes one or more attached files or data sets, which are usually word processing documents, spreadsheet documents, or image files.
However, e-mailing a message to an individual address, several individual addresses, or to a group requires multiple preparation steps. The sender of the message must choose from a list of e-mail addresses to select recipients or groups, type in a subject, and manually select and attach the files to be included in the e-mail. Upon completing the selection of recipients and attachments, the sender will usually invoke a “send” command which sends the e-mail message to the recipients. Thus, if the sender later finds the need to include another attached file, the sender must generate another e-mail message to the same recipients. Often, an explanatory note is included in the second message so as to avoid confusion among the recipients as to why another document has been received. Accordingly, as this process is repeated throughout the day, productivity is lost.
Reduction of system bandwidth is another drawback in common e-mail systems. Often senders do not compress attached files to reduce the size of the e-mail messages because of the intervening step of compressing the files before attaching them to the e-mail message. The time involved to individually compress each attached file would further reduce productivity, so senders often do not bother compressing attachments, thereby making inefficient use of system bandwidth.
Finally, the sheer volume of e-mail messages received by recipients reduces productivity. Often recipients must individually scroll through dozens of e-mail messages received each hour. Senders often omit a subject heading for an e-mail message, or fail to provide a descriptive subject heading. Thus, recipients must spend additional time evaluating the contents and importance of the message. Productivity is further reduced by senders sending e-mail messages and attachments (as soon as they find information related to a common subject), or, as mentioned above, as a result of overlooking a necessary file that should have been included in an earlier e-mail message.
The disclosure of the present invention provides a novel method of distributing an e-mail message, including e-mailing data sets to several individual addresses, or e-mailing a group of data sets to a group mailing list comprising a list of individual mailing addresses, so that each recipient receives a recipient data set that includes only data associated with that recipient. Each recipient data set is generated automatically based on the placement of data sets within a class hierarchy, the class hierarchy associated with a plurality of recipient accounts corresponding to a plurality of recipients.
According to the invention, a method of distributing data to a plurality of recipients associated with a corresponding plurality of recipient accounts comprises the steps of associating a plurality of classes arranged in a class hierarchy with the plurality of recipient accounts; associating a plurality of data sets with the plurality of classes and the plurality of recipient accounts; creating a plurality of recipient data sets by associating each data set associated with a class to each recipient account associated with the class so that each recipient data set includes only data sets associated with each corresponding recipient account; and distributing the plurality of recipient data sets to the corresponding plurality of recipients.
Also according to the invention, a system for distributing data to a plurality of recipients associated with a corresponding plurality of recipient accounts comprises means for associating a plurality of classes arranged in a class hierarchy with the plurality of recipient accounts; means for associating a plurality of data sets with the plurality of classes and the plurality of recipient accounts; means for creating a plurality of recipient data sets by associating each data set associated with a class to each recipient account associated with the class so that each recipient data set includes only data sets associated with each corresponding recipient account; and means for distributing the plurality of recipient data sets to the corresponding plurality of recipients.
Also according to the invention, an apparatus for distributing data to a plurality of recipients corresponding to a plurality of recipient accounts comprises a computer storage medium storing a data structure and a program; a computer system having access to the computer storage medium and configured to execute the application program; wherein the data structure includes a plurality of classes arranged in a class hierarchy, and further includes the plurality of recipient accounts associated with the plurality of classes; and wherein the program associates data sets to selected classes and selected recipient accounts, creates a plurality of recipient data sets by associating data sets associated with a selected class to the recipient accounts associated with the selected class so that each recipient data set includes only data sets associated with each corresponding recipient account, and distributes the plurality of recipient data sets to the corresponding plurality of recipients.
Also according to the invention, a method of e-mailing files comprises the steps of associating a first file with a class of recipients; associating a second file with one recipient in the class; creating a data set for each recipient in the class, wherein only the data set corresponding to the one recipient includes the second file; and distributing the data sets to the recipients.
Also according to the invention, a program for distributing files to recipients connected by a network comprises code for defining a class of recipients; code for associating a first file with the class of recipients; code for associating a second file with one recipient in the class; code for creating a data set for each recipient in the class, wherein only the data set corresponding to the one recipient includes the second file; and code for distributing the data sets to the recipients.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of illustrated embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.